title: Associations of placental weight with maternal and cord blood hormones.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Placental weight has been associated with mammographic pattern and coronary heart disease in the adult offspring, but the mechanisms are unknown. We evaluated the associations of maternal and cord blood hormones with placental weight in normal pregnancies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective study of 167 normal singleton pregnancies in Boston, USA and 256 in Shanghai, China. Maternal hormone levels at the 27th gestational week were available for all pregnancies. Cord blood measurements were available for 86 pregnancies in Boston and 104 in Shanghai. Pearson partial correlation coefficients of log-transformed hormone levels with placental weight were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Maternal levels of estriol, testosterone, and progesterone (P < .05) were positively associated with placental weight. There was no such evidence for adiponectin, prolactin, and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I. Cord blood steroids tended to be inversely associated with placental weight, the results being statistically significant for testosterone (P < .05). There was a marginally significant positive association of cord blood IGF-I with placental weight. Reported results were adjusted for study center.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Placental weight appears to be positively correlated with maternal steroids. Its correlation with cord blood steroids, however, appears inverse, compatible with negative feedback mechanisms. There is also a suggestion for placental weight to be positively associated with cord blood IGF-I.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA; Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Pagona
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lagiou
authors.forename: Chung-Cheng
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Evangelia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Samoli
authors.forename: Areti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lagiou
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Guo-Pei
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Sagano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Onoyama
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chie
authors.forename: Lars J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Vatten
authors.forename: Hans-Olov
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Adami
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Trichopoulos
authors.forename: Michelle A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001900:Boston; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood; D005865:Gestational Age; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D018972:Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3 / Q000097:blood; D009929:Organ Size; D010920:Placenta / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012738:Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D013002:Somatomedins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones; D018972:Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3; D012738:Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin; D013002:Somatomedins
keywords: Hormones; Insulin-like growth factor; Intrauterine growth; Placenta